E.D.Tenn.: Search of NCIC database not a Fourth Amendment issue

There is no Fourth Amendment right to protection against searching information in NCIC. A warrant on defendant was basis for his stop. United States v. Cobb, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186155 (E.D. Tenn. December 27, 2012):

Without providing any legal support for this argument, Defendant Campbell insists that a law enforcement officer must have reasonable suspicion to search the NCIC database for a person’s information. Many courts have held that computer database searches are not subject to Fourth Amendment analysis. In fact, “[t]he obvious purpose of maintaining law enforcement databases is to make information, such as the existence of outstanding warrant, readily available to officers carrying out legitimate law enforcement duties.” United States v. Ellison, 462 F.3d 557, 562 (6th Cir. 2006) (finding no expectation of privacy in an officer’s search of the Law Enforcement Information Network, which revealed an outstanding warrant); see also Eagle v. Morgan, 88 F.3d 620, 628 (8th Cir. 1996) (finding that a NCIC search did not violate the plaintiff’s federal constitutional rights); Cincerella v. Egg Harbor Township Police Dept., No. 06-1183 (RBK), 2009 WL 792489, at *3 (D. N.J. Mar. 23, 2009) (stating that “[b]ecause a person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the information in the NCIC database, searching a person’s record through the NCIC database does not violate the federal or state constitution”); United States v. Schmid, No. 3:06-CR-97, 2007 WL 540788, at *5 (E.D. Tenn. Feb. 15, 2007) (finding probable cause after the officer entered the vehicle’s license plate number and received a NCIC reporting indicating that the vehicle was associated with the defendants, who had outstanding federal warrants). Therefore, the Court finds that Officer Mattina did not violate the Fourth Amendment when he conducted the computer searches.